The early 2010s were a weird time for Sony. As the PS3 started gaining some real traction and the PS4 was around the corner, the PlayStation Vita launched. This little handheld that couldn't served as Sony's last major handheld before the company shifted all its focu?s onto console games.

It's a sad?? story of a console with unfulfilled pot?ential because I think it's one of the best handhelds ever. It's also one with a creator who had no idea what to do with it.

When the Vita was alive but floundering, Sony had the baffling idea to launch a micro-console using Vita hardware. Mircoconsoles were a phenomenon that only sparked the interest of various companies as the public did not care. While Nvidia's Shield still exists, the Ouya became famous for failing, and Sony's machine was forgotten. Unfortunately, this was the case because the PlayStation TV deserves remembrance.

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PlayStation TV is baffling.

The PlayStation TV is a little goblin of a console that is a Vita's guts in a tabletop form. This thing came out in Japan on November 15, 2013, and exactly a year later everywhere else. By the time the international release came, the Vita was on life support, and the Ouya had long become a laughing stock. Booting it up felt like venturing through the hus?k of a building abandoned early in construction.

To get one thing out of the way, I took pictures on my phone because my screenshots wouldn't transfer, and taking pictures of curved monitors i??s wonky. After trying to work with the PlayStation TV on this, it didn't want to work with me. 2023 just doesn't suit the PS TV.

It's also clear the PS TV lacked support. The Vita's last release was ??in 2021, and the newest release on the PS TV is from 2017. It's not like the store is chock full of all releases from before then, either. A controversial part of the PS TV is that it supported a fraction of the Vita's already limited library, and it shows. I never thought I would shop at a digital store this barren, and it was disheartening.

The lack of support and limited use is honestly embarras??sing. It also says so much about how badly the PS TV flopped when the Vita continued to receive support for several years, and the handheld is famous for failing.

Even more egregious is that this literally is a Vita with an ethernet port and HDMI connectivity. The UI is the same, and the syst??em even refers to itself as a Vita on several occasions. It di?d launch in Japan as PS Vita TV, which is honestly what it should have been called internationally.

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I still love this thing.

Frustrations aside, a charitable description of my experience with a PS TV is what my Vita was like in 2012. I have ma??ny complaints, but I love my PS TV. This is p??robably because it's playing a Vita on a TV.

Many who know me know the Vita's my favorite handheld. It's where I first played Persona 4 and discovered my love for all the otome on Vita. I spent hours pl??aying on it as a teen, trying out anything that came to it. Niche titles were pretty much all the Vita was home to post-2015. Sony gave up on it, but RPGs and visual novels flo?urished.

It's charming playing the original version of Persona 4 Golden on a big screen along with Persona 2: Innocent Sin's PSP?? remake. I spent a while scrolling through? the purchases I made when I was around 14, redownloading many old games to have ready at a moment's notice.

The PS TV didn't receive support, but I'm coming in with a decade of digital purchases. Since many were PSP and PS1 titles, the lack of actual Vita software doesn't matter much to me. I can play Parasite Eve again on a screen bigger than 5 inches. A PS5 still can't do ?that.

??This is undoubtedly the most comfortable way I have played these games. I have an unending love for the Vita, but my hands have gotten bigger ??since 2012. A DualShock 4 meanwhile fits comfortably in my hands, and I can lay back at a comfortable angle.

Nostalgia is no doubt why I love this thing. I??t's been a while since I felt like a kid again, but this somehow gave me that. The pas?t is comforting to return to, and the PS TV brought me to mine.

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Do I recommend the PlayStation TV?

No. I don't recommend this thing unless the person is?? comfortable modding consoles. Rose glasses aside, the PlayStation TV isn't great. It could have been that, but being ??a more niche Vita was a death sentence. Microconsoles were also short-lived, as most people would rather play on a traditional console.

I know I'm critical of it because the PS TV could have been more. Even if it were doomed, so was the Vita after some time, and it still received eight years of support. Both could have grown, and if full parity ??between systems was there, it would have been a console/handheld ecosystem predating the Switch.

Despite that, I don't think the PS TV would have succeeded even if the Vita did. It may have been a pretty sweet deal at $100, but its library consisted of games pri??marily played on the go. That's even if a game has support on it.

I love my PlayStation TV, but it's difficult to say many genuinely nice things about it. Exporting media sucks, there's a limited library, and it's UI is from a mob??ile device.

It's also the last device where PS1 games released on PS3 are playable, physical Vita cartridges are usable,? and using a DualShock 4 beats the Vita's tiny buttons. So there are genuine compliments I can give it.

I'm unsure what tone I wanted to take with this retrospective of sorts, but I feel a little reflective writi??ng about this. I think about what could have been with the PS TV, and its placement makes me think about the girl I was at 13. Seeing the initial Vita setup blown up 12 years after she did on its tiny screen made me wonder what she felt. I just remember it looking much bigger back t??hen.

The post PlayStation TV was a baffling idea and I de??eply love mine appeared first on Destructoid.

No beer and no PSTV make Charlotte something something

People are often dismissive of the PS Vita: it pales in comparison to the Nintendo 3DS, its back catalogue is nothing special, and Sony made some utterly bizar?re design choices. These people often forget that there is another layer of disappointment to this story, which was the release of the PSTV – a gadget for your PS4 that doubled as a non-handheld Vita. Let me repeat that – a non-handheld handheld, three years before Nintendo executed the idea with some semblance of elegance. In hindsight, it feels like it was almost doomed to failure.

Hold that thought, though – maybe the PSTV (and the Vita, for that matter) attract greater c??riticism than they deserve.?? There are certainly reasons why you might want to own a small, versatile Sony games console, and the PSTV provides just that. I've had my PSTV since February 2016, and I use it on a fairly regular basis – I'd say that at this stage, equal time is spent between my PS3, PS4 and PSTV. So, I feel well placed to look back on the hundreds of hours I've poured into this little guy, and tell you whether it deserves to be written off as a flop. Ultimately, the PSTV lets Sony fans down, falling short in several areas, but there's still something of value there for a select few of us.

PROS

1. Its size

Simply put, the ??PSTV is seriously compact. It's also just as lightweight as you'd expect for something so tiny. There's really not much between the PSTV and the Raspberry Pi 3, while it is dwarfed by the DS Lite (see below). This makes the PSTV the perfect console to take with you to gaming events, where there is an abundance of screens or you're taking your own. I dread having to schlep my hulking PS3 Slim (Slim?!) across half of the city for gaming meet-ups, so having something so squashed down that I can fit in into a nice handbag, yet still hook it up to a large screen later, is a huge plus.

The PSTV with a rainbow alpaca (for scale)

 2. It's cheap as chips

When I picked up my PSTV, sh??ops couldn't get rid of them fast enough. They were being flogged primarily as a PS4 accessory, since they also allow for streaming PS4 footage to a second TV, so demand was pretty low. If that was all the PSTV did, then I think it would have died on its arse completely.

So, I spotted a bunch of them on sale at MediaMarkt for 40 euros, and grabbed one without a second thought. At the time, PS Vitas could run to around quadruple the price; PSTVs have since gone up to closer to 100 euros, but you can still pay almost double that for a Vita. Either way, you're shaving off some of the pr??ice if you're willing to forfeit the screen. It's also such an unpopular/unknown console that flash sales to get rid of stock are highly likely.

In addition, the fact that the PSTV comes with 1GB internal storage meant that I could start tinkering with it before I got hold of a used proprietary micro SD card (more on that later). And I got a voucher for a Worms gam??e that?? I've never played, and probably never will, so...that's nice, I guess?

3. So many great g?ames – on a massive telly!

Back in 2015, the only way you could play Danganronpa 2 on a big screen was to get a PSTV: the PC release came a year later, and the double release of Danganronpa 1 and 2 on PS4 came two years later. The same (still) applies for Persona 4 Golden and Persona 4: Dancing All Night. It also might be one of the more practi??cal ways for you to play PS1 and PSP games, even though the PSTV only supports digital releases of these formats. Meanwhile, it has a Vita cartridge slot, so digital or physical Vita games can be played on it. If you value playing your favourite titles on a larger screen, rather than being hunched over a handheld unit, this console is for you.

Personally, I would always rather play something blown up to a larger scale than squint at a tiny screen. I'm also not one for playing games in public, outside of a multiplayer context; I feel quite self-conscious on the odd occasion I do whip out my DS Lite on the bus. I'd much rather just listen to podcasts when I'm out and about. If I'm at home, but away from a TV screen, that tends to be when the laptop comes out and I complete more menial tasks in Stardew Valley.

Handheld?s are not a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination, but I can relax and absorb the atmosphere of a game better if I'm playing it on a home console. On the whole, the PSTV allows me to get more enjoyment out of V?ita games. And I already enjoy the heck out of a LOT of Vita games.

CONS

1. Incompatibility and lack of support

By far one of the worst things about the PSTV is the fact that large parts of the Vita catalogue are not compatible with it. Because it isn't a handheld console and therefore has limited capacity to mimic touchscreens, huge swathes of games are greyed out in the PS Store. There is a way to use the analogue sticks of the DualShock 3/4 to perform touchscreen inputs, but it is so unwieldy that there is simply no PSTV support for a lot of titles. Among the outcast games are Gravity Rush, the Persona 2: Eternal Punishment and Persona 3 Portable bundle, and Danganronpa 1 (in Europe only &?ndash; no idea why certain games are only supported in specific regions).

You'd think the DualShock 4 would allow for some touchscreen functionality, but Sony really dropped the ball when it came to in??corporating? the controller's various functions. The headphone jack doesn't work, nor does the Share button. There is no advantage to playing with a DualShock 4 compared to playing with a DualShock 3, which reeks of laziness.

The only thing worse than being unable to p?lay some PS Vita games on the PSTV is the fact that some games are apparently supported, yet don't work as they should. Luckily, this has only happened to me with one game that I got through my PS Plus subscription for free, so I didn't throw my budget away on something broken.

Amnesia: Memories is apparently unlocked for the PSTV, yet the mini-games (required to get all of the trophies) require quick reflexes – and touchscreen functionality. While the PSTV can theoretically mimic this through ??analogue stick inputs, there's no way that playing a time-sensitive air hockey or rock-paper-scissors mini-game this way could be anything other than gobsmackingly shite. With no sign of any fixes or updates to the PSTV on the horizon, this is what you will be stuck with for all eternity, sadly.

2. The great micro SD card swindle

This will probably go down as one of the greedier moments in Sony corporate history. Thi??s problem extends to the PS Vita, but crucially, it was never fixed with the PSTV: the need for proprietary micro SD cards.

While I can appreciate that banning the use of standard micro SD cards would avoid the PSTV becoming a hacker's delight, it eventually got cracked anyway (as is inevitable). The laughable pricing of these Sony-b????randed micro SD cards rubbed the fans up the wrong way right from the start.

This is compounded by the memory card being locked to a single PSN account. So, for example, you will need separate memory cards if you have a UK and a US PSN account – technically against the rules, but even the? President o??f SIE Worldwide Studios does it – or the patience to back-up and format one memory card again and again and again. There is simply no way to buy a game with one account and play it on another account, unless you apply some serious modifications to your console. So if you want to ex??perience Vita games from around the world, you'd better be ready to lay down some serious cash, or to go through the irritating process of wiping your memory card several times.

3. Shonky hardware, shonkier software

In many ways, the PSTV is a sturdy little thing – you don't get the feeling it will be smashed to smithereens, lest you forget to cover? it in bubble wrap before going on a trip with it in your backpack. In other respects, it can be quite temperamental. I have noticed from personal experience that it can be hard to get the bloody thing to power down properly; I am used to having to set the time and date 50% of the time I switch it on, because I don't realise it's not ?powered down properly when I flip the switch on my extension lead.

As you'd expect for a handheld derivative, it's not business up front, party in the back – there is a HDMI out, an Ethernet port, one USB slot, and that's your lot. It's minimalist and certainly attractive, but also really sparse. If you want?? a fuss-free way to stream your favourite Vita games, prepare to be disappointed.

The PS Store has always been ludicrously primitive, and it's at its worst on the PSTV. The damn thing crashes all the time, and it saddens me to see that Fez and TWD: Season 2 are still the top advertised games. They're doubtlessly great games, but they're oh so very old! Also, my internet connection is terrible, but I swear it's even worse on the PSTV. When I tested it out on my parents' comparably impressive WiFi at Christmas, the download speeds were sluggish, even when downloading something as simple as Sorcery Saga: Curse of the Great Curry God.

To me, the PSTV feels like a ??prototype stolen from Sony's R&D department: the foundations of something good are definitely th??ere, but it has an upsetting lack of polish.

THE VERDICT

It would be irresponsible of me to tell you to go out and buy a PSTV at all costs. In fact, it won't be a valuable addition to the vast majority of Sony games collections, since it falls short on so many levels. But if the compatibility limitations don't scare you off, if you vastly favour games on a giant TV screen, and if you're a little short on cash, the PSTV might be worth looking into. You're not going to experience anywhere near t?he same level of thrill as ?when switching on one of its heftier siblings for the first time, but it's a nice little standby device for when there's an obscure Vita game you're itching to play (provided it's compatible).

The real question is whether the $60 price tag is worth it, given that you'll be dropping just as much on a decent-sized memory card. Sony should have realised the error of its ways and made a firmware update to allow for non-proprietary SD cards or multiple accounts per card, or it should have dropped the price on the cards and made them more readily available. Instead, the PSTV fell into o?bscurity. And it sort of belongs there, even though I do have a soft spot for it.

Do you own a PSTV? Do you think it's a terrible console, or did you get some enjoyment out of it? Let me know in the comments down below!

The post Looking back on the? PSTV: hidden treasure or colossal failure? appeared first on Destructoid.

Pushed back by about six weeks

September has lost another one. In an update posted today on the Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Kickstarter page, developer Wayforward announced the gorgeous looking game has been pushed back by about six weeks. A new release date isn't expected to ?be announced until after it has been given the green light by the console manufacturers.

Speaking of consoles, if you were looking forward to getting this game on the Xbox 360 or PS3, there is more bad news. Both versions have been canned due to just 1% of backers choosing the last-gen platforms. The game is still scheduled to launch o?n the PS4, Xbox One, ?Wii U, Vita, and Steam.

So yeah, we're going to have to wait a little longer, but it's not all bad news. According to the post, the game is "content complete," meaning all the work being done on the core game now is just squashing bugs and quality-assurance. As for the backer funded DLC, it looks like Half-Genie Hero will follow a path similar to Shovel Knight: launch a completed base game with two stretch goal-funded bonus chapters and add character DLC over time. Unlike Shovel Knight, it ?looks like the character DLC will only be free to backers. No word ?on how much it will cost the rest of us.

MEGA UPDATE! [Kickstarter]

The post Shantae: Half-Genie Hero pulls a Final Fantasy XV appeared first on Destructoid.

It's waifu vs waifu

Can you believe it's been 15 weeks since the last entry in the Hyperdimension Neptunia fr?anchise was released? What's ta??king so long?

If the past few months without your waifu have been excruciating, fret not. Idea Factory International announced today Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls will be released digitally and physically in the US on October 18 and in the EU on October 21 for the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation TV. I assume the Steam release will be about th??ree months after that.

Developed by Felistella, which handled all of the original Neptunia Vita ports, Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls features first-time lead protagonist IF trying to save Gamindustri in a time-hopping adventure that will have her teaming up with the CPUs and the ladies of the Sega Hard Girls series. Time-hopping adventure, eh? I'm going to ??go out on a limb and say that means I?'ll be visiting the same dungeon multiple times throughout history.

After watching that trailer and reading up on the game, I'm very much looking forward to it. Dungeon crawling certainly looks like it could be more interesting with the addition of climbing and crawling, and I do want to se??e how the class system is implemented.

To hel??????????????????????????p? tide you over until the game drops, check out these freshly released screenshots of the English localization.

The post Get hard, Sega Hard, this October appeared first on Destructoid.

Works on latest firmware 3.60

If you've been hankering to run emulators, homebrew, and classic PC games on your PlayStation Vita, well, you're in luck, as the HENkaku hack now enables it, as well as allowing all Vita games to play on t?he PlayStation TV.

The hack currently only works on the latest firmware (3.60) and can be downloaded via the Vita's web browser. This will install an app called Mol?ecular Shell that acts as a file transfer protocol as well as a gate for homebrew. The hack must be run whenever the Vita is powered down or runs out of battery, but, fortunately, it takes only a few seconds.

Currently, there are various emulators available for Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Neo Geo Pocket, Genesis, and SNES, as well as a couple homebrew games and ports of Quake and Doom. I tried everything that is available currently, and it is all in very early stages, with most of the emulators having some issues with sound or not running full speed. That is, aside from the RetroArch Genesis emulator, which seems near flawless. These classic games look so damned good on the original Vita's OLED screen, as the colors practically pop off the screen. Oooooh weeeee!

That said, there is now a way to install ?an app that launches VHBL, a PSP-based homebrew menu where you can run more fully developed emulators for the time being. The process is a bit more involved, but is by no means difficu??lt.

For those of us with a PSTV, there is a Whitelister app that quickly installs a hack to allow playing any Vita game on it, not just the ones specifically made available by developers -- meaning you'll be able to play games like Uncharted: Golden Abyss and the Ratchet & Clank Collection on your television.

Thankfully, the hack doesn't enable piracy of Vita games, with the developers stating they made it?? difficult to do so:

"We are all developers by trade and we understand the problem of piracy that usually ?arises from breaking the security features of a device. The usual response from hackers is “not our problem” but we believe we can do better. We carefully designed HENkaku to be as permissive as possible for developers to write homebrew supporting private APIs and the option to bypass sandboxes. However, we also made sure to make it as difficult as possible to repurpose our tools to enable piracy. While piracy is always inevitable, we will not make it easy."

Looks like the Vita finally has some games. Zing!

The post Playstation Vita hacked: Run emulators, homebrew, an?d more games on PSTV appeared first on Destructoid.

New look, same great taste

It's been quite a long time since Bandai Namco first threw its hat into the monster-hunting ring with God Eater, and since then the landscape has changed. Monster Hunter its?elf moved to the Nintendo 3DS, a whole new generation of consoles launched and matured, and gaming as a whole went further online, away from the local-area antics that founded and sustained the hunting genre in its Japanese homeland.

And now it's back as God Eater Resurrection, an enh?anced remake of the original game. But will it be enough in thi??s day and age, or have gamers' appetites just changed too much?

God Eater Resurrection (PS4 [Tested], PS Vita [Reviewed], PS TV [Compatible], PC)
Developer: Shift
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Released: October 15, 2015 (JP), June 28, 2016 (NA), August 30, 2016 (EU & PC)
MSRP: $19.99

The good news about God Eater Resurrection is that it's a fresh game from most any relevant angle. The long half-decade between the release of the PSP original (back when it was renamed to "Gods Eater Burst for fear of getting religious types riled up) and now has kept sequel fatigue from setting in the way it has with some of the competition, and new features and gussied-up technical aspects will appeal both to new people wondering what the fuss is about and franchise veterans curious about what's coming in God Eater 2: Rage Burst, which this game effectively acts as a prequel to. At the time of this writing, pre-orders for Rage Burst will n??et both games,? which isn't a bad deal if you're already sold.

In any case, being able to see God Eater Resurrection as a fresh release helps reaffirm the game's appeal, and highlights what the original brings to the table in a genre typically associated solely with Monster Hunter.

Most obviously, God Eater Resurrection brings the anime-ness. Whereas Capcom's giant is content to provide a relatively chill, neutral fantasy backdrop to slaughter giant beasts against, God Eater confidently strides the path of otaku appeal. Players are cast as the newest member of the God Eaters, a corps of soldiers working for Fenrir, humanity's last bast?ion against the Aragami, a race of massive beasts that live only to consume everything in their path.

Loved by some and hated by others, the God Eaters are the only on?es capable of harming Aragami, and they do so by chopping, smashing, shooting, and biting them with God Arcs, weapons that regularly dwarf their wielders and morph from giant swords into giant guns and even into giant monster-mouths.

Between the cool, sexed-up character designs, post-apocalyptic style, and J-pop inflected action, God Eater Resurrection distinguishes itself by dint of presentation, as well as by providing an actual narrative to follow and cha??racters to listen to. Players in search of a reason to murder huge monsters beyond the desire to turn their remains into even better monster-murdering paraphernalia will find what t??hey're looking for here.

Don't expect Shakespeare, though, or even Neon Genesis Evangelion. The story and characterization are thinly drawn by the standards of JRPGs, and it wouldn't stand well on its own. That's actually a verifiable fact because God Eater did get an anime adaptation last year, and while pretty, it was quite boring when separated from the actual game itself. What's there does do the job, and it's just enough for people who want a story to go with? their monster-ski??nning. Plus, the whole thing has received a new localization, with a decent dubbing job, more polished translation, and prettier character models overall.

The new sheen on God Eater's presentation and technical performance (framerate drops from the PSP version are absent on both the Vita and PS4, though the Vita version has more noticeable aliasing) go well with a number of mechanical updates. The available arsenal of weapons has been roughly doubled, for one, thanks to retroactive additions from God Eater 2: Rage Burst.

For example, the new Boost Hammer is a massive mallet that can activate a rocket engine in its head to deliver a rapid, stamina-draining series of blows, while the Charge Spear adds a backflip and charged lunge attack to the player's mobility options. The Variant Scythe concentrate??s on wide, sweeping chain attacks that make up for a slightly wonky lock-on camera. Even the original Short, Long, and Buster Blades have been tweaked to allow for more distinct play options, such as adding an attack-cancelling "Zero Stance" to Long Blades that allows skilled players to chain together infinite combos, or further enhancing the Short Blade's crazy air-dash and step-cancel abilities. 

Even the game's gun and devour modes have received some attention, with the gun subtypes getting their own distinct features and the devour modes unlocking various "Predator Styles" that confer varying benefits based on where in the chain players opt to take a bite ou??t of their enemies. Add to that an absurdly detailed Bullet Editor that allows players to make their own customized ranged projectiles, and there's plenty to sink one's teeth into on the way to the next gear upgrade.

The additional mechanical depth helps God Eater Resurrection players enjoy mastering their choice of weapon. The combat lacks the sheer depth and deliberate animation of Monster Hunter, but it moves much more quickly, and is generally more forgiving, not least because of the new imp??rovements to AI party members and a new progression system related to taking them along on hunts. Players who've got hunt-happy friends can take them along instead, as multiplayer is supported across both PS4 and Vita, including cross-play and cross-save (though not cross-buy).

Thankfully, none of ??the new systems compromise the game's commitment-light structure in the quest for greater engagement. Players won't spend hours harvesting herbs, mushrooms, and tree branches just to keep up with what they're hunting. Indeed, some extra challenge missions mak??e farming materials even simpler, freeing players up to concentrating on enjoying the combat.

At the same time, though, there's no escaping the fact that the game is, despite the new looks and features, five years old. It plays better than it ever did, but its PSP legacy is inescapable thanks to the limited environments and lack of scale. No amount of tarted-up character models can disguise it, not to mention that all of this stands in the shadow of another full-sized God Eater game due a few weeks from now.

Further, thanks to its odd path to release God Eater Resurrection it may even look quaint to players who got deep into the Shift-developed Freedom Wars.

Perhaps it took a move to the home consoles and a years-delayed retouch, but God Eater Resurrection shines as a less demanding, flashier alternative to the likes of Monster Hunter. It'll never ask for the same depth of dedication, but i??????????????????????????t doesn't try to, and in (not) doing so, manages to prove that being the "diet" version of something isn't always a bad thing.

_{[This review is based on a copy of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: God Eater Resurrection appeared first on Destructoid.

There's no shame in retreat

I've always believed I could get into any video game genre if I could just find the right title to introduce me. After years of trying to get into farming simulators, Rune Factory 4 finally made the genre click with me. For monster catchers, it was Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2. For flight sims, it was Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces. Just one title, one game, and I?? can suddenly and completely be into a style of game I never thought I could like.

This month, Stranger of Sword City became ?the game that got me into the turn-based dungeon crawle??r.

Stranger of Sword City (PS Vita [reviewed on a PlayStation TV], Xbox One, Xbox 360 [Japan only])
Developer: Experience Inc.
Publisher: NIS America (PS Vita only), Experience Inc.
Release: April 26, 2016 (Vita [US]), April 29, 2016 (Vita [EU]),  March 22, 2016 (Xbox One [US]), March 29, 2016 (Xbox One [EU]), TBA (PC)
MSRP: $39.99 (PS Vita), $40.49 (Xbox One)

In Stranger of Sword City, you play as the sole survivor of a plane crash. Somehow the jet you were in ended up in Escario, a mythical land of trolls, dragons, and more broken television sets than Elvis Presley's house when Robert Goulet's on screen. Something (or someone) keeps pulling people from our world into this magical realm and while figuring out what that is isn't the main ??objective of the story, the mystery of how this keeps happening kept me glued to the often weak narrative.

After your character is rescued by Riu, you find out that you're one of the few Chosen Ones, strangers to this land w??ho can touch and carry Blood Crystals that drop out of defeated Lineage Monsters. Riu is one of three Vessels in Escario who can absorb the crystals. In order to make it back to your world, you have to create a team and hunt down as many Lineage Monsters as you can.

The character creator is a lot more robust than I thought it would be. There are five races and eight classes to choose from, in addition to a couple dozen different character portraits. Race and gender isn't tied to the image, so if you want a burly looking elf to in reality be a female migmy, you go right ahead and do that. I did. On the outside, my healer looked like a crusty old dwarf with a long white beard, but in reality she was a 13-year-old girl I pretended had a case of that Benjamin Button disease. You can even change the voice to suit your needs. My main character sounded like a lady in action, but a man in?? defeat.

There are two different art styles to choose from for the NPCs: Yoko Tsukamoto's art from the game's Japan-only Xbox 360 original release and a new, anime-inspired design by En Okishiji. You can switch between them at any time and this doesn't limit your selection of created character portraits in any way. I personally stuck with the Tsukamoto originals. The anime characters featured colors far too bright for the scenery while Tsukamoto's elegantly designed portraits looked as though they would be right at home on the dogeared cover of a Dungeons & Dragons rulebook revision.

Like it or not, there is a permadeath aspect to this game that you'll have to consider when making your team. Characters have a certain amount of Life Points and once those are depleted, that character is no more. When building your squad, the younger they are the more Life Points they have, up to three. That seems like the safe option, but know those characters are also weaker compare??d to an older and more seasoned warrior.

If you like your dungeon crawlers difficult you've come to the right place. Even on the beginner setting I found myself constantly going up against beasts I had no chance of defeating. It was a strange feeling for me. In the past, I would just power through because all of the previous RPGs I've played would keep enemies near the level of your party, lest you venture in an area you're not supposed to be in. That's not the case here. I was constantly assaulted by creatures way too stro??ng for my te?am. While that may be seen as poor programming, I saw it as an opportunity to learn it's okay to retreat.

When you give Blood Crystals to the Vessels, you unlock new abilities called Divinity and ??the first one you get is Flash Retreat. This allows you to retreat from any battle other than those against certain Lineage types. Early in the game, I didn't see myself using this. As I continued to die and reset my PlayStation TV, I realized I had to change how I played RPGs. I couldn't just push my way through it. In admitting that it was okay to run from battle, the game became a lot more accessible for me. I stopped losing characters, stopped restarting my system, and started to have fun.

It was at that point the quality of Sword City's dungeon design started to speak to me. Each disti??nct, grid-based labyrinth features a lot to discover; with troll camps, teleporting corridors, and bandit hideouts being just a few of the points of interest you'll come across. Any monotony I found during the often repetitive battles with grunts diminished when I'd discover a new hidden pathway, stumble into a Lineage battle, or solve ?one of the many puzzles I came across. ;

Dungeons are auto-mapped, so you won't have to worry about marking anything as you move forward. With permadeath lingering over my head, there was always a feeling of fearful exhilaration as I proceeded into these often dark mazes. I got goosebumps, actual goosebumps, when I questioned proceeding down a newly discovered hallway deep within the volcanic mine of the Mausoleum of Fire or running back to the guild to save. Going back was the safe and?? smart thing to do, but dammit I want to live on the edge. Turns out that was a bad idea. I completed a Lineage battle, only to stumble into a similarly difficult fight with a beast that took the remaining Life Point of my samurai. So long Sammy.

When you do create a new character to take the place of a fallen comrade, they start off leveled up in proportion to your main character. In theory that sounds good, however I found myself with a warrior at half the level of the rest of my team. In my experience, I found it best to create a whole mess of charact?ers at the very beginning as they level up even when you're not using them. Those characters where a full three to four levels ahead of the samurai I created halfway through the game to replace that lost soldier.

Training that new ally put a spotlight on what I found to be the least enjoyable part of Stranger of Sword City and that is the incredibly slow grind to level-up your characters. Leveling her took a few hours just to get her up to snuff with the rest of my team. I couldn't tackle of any of the Lin?eage monsters because the new girl wouldn't stand a chance, and protecting her would only make it more difficult to collect those Blood Crystals.

Another speed bump: resurrected Lineages. You're first told that once you collect the Blood Crystal from these monsters, they'll no longer threaten the land. However from time to time these beasts wil??l come back only to take over a warp point you've unlocked in a dungeon, forcing you to trek from the beginning of each maze to take it down. Eventually these become more of a nuisance than a challenge. It's a bit of artificial lengthening this game could do without.

Even with the slow grind, I have no reservations saying Stranger of Sword City is a damn fine dungeon crawler. It's challenging, it's beautiful to look at, and it kept me on my toes throughout the adventure as I walked the fine line between playing it smart and playin??g it dangerously. If this game can make a believer out of me, imagine what die-hard dungeon crawler fans will think of it.

_{[This review is based on a re??tail build?? of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Stranger of Sword City appeared first on Destructoid.

Digital and physical release on PS Vita

Sega has sent along word that Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls is now being localized for release th?is fall in North America and Europe. They re??ally go for it with these names, don't they?

This time, Neptune has become a motorcycle for some reason, leaving room for IF to lead the way. She'll "jump, dash, climb, and crawl her way to recover the lost history of the Grand Library" with a playable cast that also includes Nepgear, Plutia, and Uzume. Is the Dreamcast the best girl? Knowing very little about this long-running series and its spino??ffs, I will go out on a limb?? with a definitive "yes."

Hard Girls will be playable on PS Vita and also PlayStation TV (I k??eep forgetting I have one). If you're so inclined, you can find a bunch of let's plays of the Jap??anese version on YouTube. Here's a trailer:

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This coordinated op has already dropped DOAX3 to 2 stars

Dead or Alive Extreme 3: Fortune is an objectively excellent game, that much is not up for debate. This is despite the fact that Jed "Jed!" Whitaker reviewed it here and found it to have earned only 1.5 out of 10 points because of re-used assets, cut content that was present in past iterations, as well as the addition of microtransact??ions and grind-heavy gameplay.

But because Dead or Alive Extreme 3: Fortune is good, actually, thanks to its strong convictions with regards to being a? game about titillation, we know t?hat Jed was just trolling for hits. Unfortunately, this outstanding video game isn't even safe from "user reviews."

You'll note that I put user reviews in "scare quotes." That's because the Japanese branch of the SJW (that's "social justice warrior") hive mind seems to have turned its sights on the game's "user review" section on Amazon Japan. There are 114 at time of writing. Upset about Dead or Alive Extreme 3: Fortune's righteous boobage and overall high quality, these dainty cucks are carpet bombing the game's review section, having dropped the aggregate all the way down to two (2) stars out of five (5) with ??absolute n??onsense reviews, like:

"KTが女の子を利用してリアルマネーを稼ぐゲームになってます。
キャラクターが可愛いこと以外良い点はない。以上。"

I can't make head nor tail of this SJW-scrawled crappola. Are you ?writing a one star Amazon review of an objectively good game just to get your rocks off or are you writing a god dang English 101 paper, am I right folks? Good thing this game is actually great and anyone who has anything nega?tive to say about it is an outraged, moralistic prig. 

The post Japanese SJ??Ws are carpet bo?mbing Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 user reviews appeared first on Destructoid.

'Never say never'

More than a decade after launching on PSP in Japan, Breath of Fire III will arrive on PlayStation Network in North America next Tuesday, February 9, according to the latest PlayStation Blogcast.

Back in 2013, Capcom's then-senior vice president Christian Svensson announced the company was looking into a North American release. ??While he referred to the possibility as a long shot, he promised to "never say never." Svensson is no longer with the company, but it seems someone kept the torch burning in his absence. It may have taken a long time, but it's final??ly happening.

Capco?m says the? title will be available for $10 and compatible with both Vita and PSTV.

PlaySt??ation Blogcast 195: Strang??er in a Strange Land [PlayStation Blog]

The post Breath of Fire III launches on PSN next week appeared first on Destructoid.

The re-release is finally coming to NA

Years ago, we ran a post about an effort to bring Breath of Fire III's PlayStation Portable version to North America. It began with the phra?se "Never give up hope!" Truly words to live by. It's happening! Capcom has announced plans for a digital release of the role-playing game.

When Breath of Fire III hits PlayStation Network next month, it'll be $10 and playable across PSP, Vita, and PlayStation TV. Years of asking for the port has paid off a?t long last.

My attachment to the series only goes as far as liking the artwork in old gaming magazines, but I know there are a lot of fans around here -- a bunch of you sent this in to our tips line!

Breath of Fire?? 3 (PSP) is coming to?? PSN this February [Capcom Unity -- Thanks, NukaCola]

The post Wow! Breath of Fire III is headed to PSN appeared first on Destructoid.

More like de-laid

While Koei Tecmo has no plans to release Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 in the west, plenty of folks pre-ordered or otherwise plan to import the beach volleyball game as a show of support for Koei Tecmo or as a symbolic act against perceiv??ed "censorship," so it's worth noting that the game was delayed a month in Japan.

Both Dead or Alive Xtreme 3: Fortune for PS4 and Dead or Alive Xtreme 3: Venus for Vita have been moved from their initial February 25 release to ?March 24 in Japan, according to Famitsu. Adjust your waifu dinner pla??ns accordingly.

【悲報】『デッドオアアライブ エクストリーム3』発売日が3月24日に延期された模様　牧場物語新作は2016年初夏に発売予定 [Hachima Kikou via Gematsu]

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Honey I Shrunk the Kids 2: Buggernauts

Two words. Giant. Bugs.

Also giant spaceships, giant kaiju, and giant explosions. If you're looking for campy sci-fi action on your Vita look no further than Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders from Planet Space.

Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders from Planet Space (PlayStation Vita, PS TV)
Developer: Sandlot
Publisher: XSEED Games
Released: December 8, 2015
MSRP: $29.99

If you're like me, you've played every EDF game and know what to expect when it comes to them, and this iteration doesn't break from the formula. In this enhanced remake of the second game in the EDF series -- originally only r??eleas?ed for PS2 in Japan and Europe -- you'll be playing as one of three classes: Infantry, Pale Wing, or Air Raider.

Infantry is your basic soldier that uses weapons you'd find in most modern day armed forces: assault rifles, sniper rifles, rocket launchers and so on. Pale Wing, on the other hand, is a female soldier with a jetpack and futuristic weapons; she moves slowly and is mostly useless on the gro??und while being nimble in the sky. Air Raider is a new addition that wasn't in the original release, and it mostly uses deployable weapons and plays more of a support role.

In my playthrough, I sampled each class before decided to stick with the familiar infantry, as they just seem like an all ??around fit when playing solo while Pale Wing and Air Raider might fair a bit better in multiplayer. While up to four player online co-op is available, I was not able to test the functionality before release, so I can?? only assume the other classes fair a bit better online.

Each of the three classes have their sets of weapons that are unlockable via pickups ??randomly dropped by enemies. This mixed with the six available difficulty levels adds a lot of replayability, on top of completing the game with each class; if you're a completionist, you'll get your $29.99 worth here. 

Initially, I was concerned this being a port of the second game in the series would mean more repetition and less variety, but I was pleased to find out that wasn't the case. EDF2 has the best collection of enemies of any of the other games in the series. Aside from giant ants and spiders there are rolly pollies, flying saucers, centipedes, and daddy lon??g legs-like walkers that are taller than skyscrapers.

While this doesn't completely quash the repetitiveness of killing giant bugs and UFOs every stage, it certainly helps. Even the notorious slowdown that the EDF series is infamous for is mostly missing. In my playthrough, I experienced maybe two or three instances of choppiness due to the amount of enemies on screen, which surprising considering?? the Vita isn't exactly a powerhouse. 

It isn't all explosions and sunshine, though. Most levels offer a tank, a speeder bike, and a helicopter, all of which control terribly. The tank is slow and clunky, the speeder bike is too fast to be controllable and useful, and the helicopter's guns aren't strong enough to be of use if you're lucky enough to hit something with them, and flying too high causes lots of pop in. On top of the terrible driving controls, the aiming just plain sucks for vehicles, mostly due to lack of crosshairs, which are provided when outsid??e the vehicle. 

Some stages take place in the city at night, where basically everything is pitch black (to a fault) other than windows in skyscrapers that shine brightly with a fuzzy glow around them, which just looks plain awful. Otherwise, graphically EDF2 looks like basically every other game in the series, which isn't surprising considering some of the levels feel almost identical if they aren't actually identical. 

Aside from thos??e issues, the main problem I had with the game was some enemies not being aggressive, instead opting to hang around in the far reaches of maps. Nearly every level's objective is 'murder all the bugs' and there was at least four or five times I had to either hunt and search to find the last enemies hiding spot, or slowly walk across the whole map. ?While tedious, these walks weren't the end of the world for me, just minor inconveniences of my fun-filled destructive romp.

Earth Defense Force 2 may not be a brand new game per se, but has enough original content to keep it feeli?ng ?fresh alongside the other recent releases in the series. With a lot of replayability, online four-player co-op, and a budget price tag it is easy to recommend to Vita owners looking for some campy over-the-top action in spite of its flaws. 

EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF! EDF!

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Earth Defen??se Force 2: Invaders from Planet Space appeared first on Destructoid.

Fingering has never been so fun

I've been playing rhythm games since they exploded onto the scene with PaRappa the Rapper in 1997, and having nearly played at least one title of every rhythm game series released I can easily say Superbeat: Xonic is top tier.

But be forewarned, this is the Dark Souls...nay...the 127 Hours of music games, only ?you get to keep your arms a??ttached.

Superbeat: Xonic (PS Vita [reviewed], PS TV)
Developer: Nurijoy
Publisher: PM Studios, Atlus & Acttil
MSRP: $39.99
Released: November 10, 2015

This spiritual successor to the DJMax series has you tapping on the edges of the screen as visualized music from various genres fly at you, or optionally using the D-pad and buttons if that is you'd prefer. Personally I found that Superbeat was far more su?ited to touchscreen gamepla?y than traditional controls.

By using touch you never have to think about what buttons to press, instead just matching the notes as they connect with the screen, which in turn makes things a tiny bit easier. The only downside to touch is getting used to the scratch notes, which are yellow notes that require tapping then quickly swiping either up or down based on the arrow inside of them. Scratch notes really gave me trouble till I?'d spent days with the game and finally found the perfect technique to trigger them.

Aside from that, the gameplay is spot on. Hitting notes just feel great on the smooth OLED of my launch edition Vita, even if I didn't recognize any of the music upon first playing it. By the time I was ??finished with the game I found myself humming along to songs and going back to play my favorites to level up. 

Superbeat has an XP leveling system that is used to unlock songs and World Tour stages. XP is gained by completing son??gs, and bonus XP are awarded for difficulty and perks related to unlockable DJ Icons. DJ Icons can grant perks or protections such as double health, more recovery, more XP and even break shields. Shields are used to prevent damage being taken and combos being broken and are necessary for many of the World Tour stages unless you're a natural born f??inger dancer. 

World Tour is really where you'll spend most of your time with the game, completing various challenges that require various goals such as massive combos that last across songs, perfectly played songs, and achieving high scores. My biggest gripe with the game is that the difficulty of World Tour stages doesn't really match up with their listed diffic?ulty; I often found myself failing the easy stages while breezing through medium and hard difficulties. 

The Tour stages that are brutally difficult require you to get 90%+ JUD, with JUD being related to score. While DJ Icons can help you pass many stages, they do little to help pass JUD stages, as the shields only grant you "good" rated presses instead of "superbeats" that give you a higher score. Some of the challenges are so hard that I found it damned near impossible to complete them in my time ?with the game, meaning I missed out on one last set of challenges and another "fart" sound effect that can be used in place of the default rimshot so??und effect played when hitting notes. 

After close to 40 hours with the game, I'm nowhere near acquiring all the unlockables, though I've managed to unlock every track -- all of which I really enjoy aside from one metal song that gives Crazytown's "Butterfly" a run for its title of 'shittiest song ever.' I rarely play my Vita, but now I'm going to have to pack it and Xonic along with me for any? flights as my new go to "don't panic because you could die at any moment" game.? 

Superbeat: Xonic is an original enough take on the rhythm genre to make it feel fresh again and is easily the best touch screen based music game I've played with Cytus coming a close second. Filled to the brim with catchy tunes, I'll be revisiting Superbeat in the coming months anytime I travel. Apart from some brutally difficult challenges, the only other thing holding me back from giving this game a perfect score is that it is on the Vita, a system that I'd still regret buying even if this was the second best rhythm game I've ever played -- long live the king, PaRappa the Rapper.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Superbeat: Xonic appeared first on Destructoid.

Sad tromboner

Are you a western gamer interested in Dead or Alive Xtreme 3? Well then you best get yo?ur ass to an import website because it doesn't look like the game will be making it our way.

Even after the publisher said fan demand could prompt a localization of the game (that will already have English subtitles), the official Dead or Alive Facebook account poo-pooed the idea that it? has plans to publish it outside of Japan and ??Asia.

I could understand there are a lot of reasons why that would be so. First, it can generally be said the games in this spin-off series are pretty goddamn terrible. Second, has any DoA Xtreme game sold that well? There are many reasons why the d??eveloper wouldn't want to spend the cash to publish this in the West, which is why the excuse giv?en on the official Facebook page just warms my heart.

Thank you, Koei Tecmo, for having the balls to say enough is enough when it comes to sexualization of women in the media, but also not having the balls to just not make the game in the first place. It's nice to know you don't want to subject people ??in the West to the horrors of pretty girls in bikinis playing terrible mini-games, but couldn't give any less of a shit about subjecting people in the East to t?hat kind of, oh let's say, filth.

Sure, we could all be mad at the publisher here for making it more difficult and more expensive for us to buy a game it had no problem publishing in the West three times before, or the fact that this sudden realization that treating women like nothing more than sexual objects had no impact on them selling DLC for Dead or Alive 5: Last Round that is about ??as revealing as anything you'd find in this game. Sure, we could all get mad about that, but instead of getting mad at one publisher for a terribly written Facebook post, why not reward another that isn't afraid to show a little skin? Surely there is at least one fan service-packed title published by XSEED, Altus, or any other small company that you don't own yet.

We have reached out?? to Koei Tecmo for official word on this story and will update if and?? when it responds.

There are No?? Plans to Bring DOA Xtreme 3 West Due to Backlash F?ears [Operation Rainfall]

The post Plans to loca??lize Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 in the West may be DOA appeared first on Destructoid.

Sup Holmes every Sunday at 4pm EST!

_{[Sup Holmes is a weekl??y talk show for people that make great v??ideogames. It airs live every Sunday at 4pm EST on YouTube, and can be found in Podcast form on Libsyn and iTunes.]}

One of the things I love about doing Sup Holmes is that it allows me to talk with pe??ople who are in the midst of live changing experiences. some good, some ba??d. Such was the case with these two episodes.

The rerun above with Gryphon Knight Epic co-creator Sandro Tomasetti was unique in that it was the first times I had the opportunity to talk to a de??veloper on a broadcasted live stream almost immediately after Destructoid posted a negative review of their game. To see how both humbled and frustrated Sandro was with the situation was both heartening and enlightening. He's gone on to patch out many of the issues that Dtoid's review had with his creation, which shows how dedicated he is to treating his audience with respect, regardless of how much of that respect is returned. He's a class act. 

Our chat with Kat and Eric, creators of Capsule Force, was a little less dramatic, but equally insightful. Kat is a classic extrovert, crackling with social energy, while Eric is more smoldering and calculating in his interpersonal style. The two met after Kat made fun of Eric for being a tall man, and that lighthearted mockery led to both a romantic relationship and a partnership in game development. Capsule Force is a clear result of that relationship??, as it carries both Kat's free-balling abandon and Eric's mathematical mentality ??in equal measure. 

Thanks to Sandro, Kat and Eric for popping on, and be sure to check out today's live show with Bento Miso maestro and Fate Tectonics engineer Henry Faber today at 4pm EST. It's going to be pasty. 

The post Chimeras and charge beams abound in the Sup Holmes? reruns appeared first on Destructoid.

Great story, odd gameplay loop

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and Goodbye Despair have been some of my favourite Vita games in recent years. A pair of murder mystery visual novels, the games melded puzzle solving, courtroom drama, and murdered school kids picking each other off into a beautiful combination. Earning an 8.5 and an 8 here on Destructoid, I was excited to see if the third Danganronpa game would hit that same sweet spot the previous ??two entr?ies had.

Unfortunately, I don't entirely know what to make of Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls. While much of the polished writing and narrative presentation is still intact, the new set of mechanics the story is wrapped in rarely left me fully satisfied. While Danganronpa made a gre?at murder mystery visual novel, it's not as impressive as a third-person shoote??r.

Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls (PS Vita)
Developer: Spike Chunsoft
Publisher: NIS America
Released: September 1 (North America), September 4 (Europe)
MSRP: $39.99

So, let's start with where Ultra Despair Girls departs from the previous Danganronpa games on Vita. Instead of investigating crimes scenes for clues, the bulk of your gameplay time in Ultra Despair Girls will be spent as Komaru Naegi s?hooting robot Monokuma bears with a techno-megaphone. The megaphone, which apparently acts as a "hacking gun," shoots lines of "code bullets" to effect the robots you come into contact with. Break Bullets act as standard damage dealers, but your gun also has less typical ammo types, such as Dance Bullets that cause enemies to stop on the spot and dance, allowing you to put distance between them and yourself.

Much ??of the core gameplay loop feels like you're playing a zombie-themed third-person shooter. Enemies tend to be slow and rambling, tak?e time to kill, and deal large amounts of damage if they reach you. While this is fine in theory, claustrophobic environments, an overly close camera, and numerous invisible walls make this core gameplay at times more frustrating than it needs to be.

The idea of a code gun shooting robotic enemies is cool, but the gameplay hiccups -- as well as the infrequency of acquiring interesting new code bul??let types -- meant I rarely got excited. Oh, there's also a melee sword combat-focused playable character, but their use is limited by a meter. That's a real shame, because a second gameplay style available to switch to at any time might have helped keep the mechanics from becoming stale this fast.

So, does the narrative save Ultra Despair Girls from death at the hands of one of Mon??okuma's elaborate devices? Well, yes and no. It rescues the game from death, but still gives it a mild case of public? torture.

In Ultra Despair Girls, we find ourselves in a city overtaken by mur??derous young children bent on seeing adults t?orn to shreds. This gang of prepubescent killers, the Warriors of Hope, have amassed an army of youngsters to control robots that are utilised to kill from safety. Playing as the younger sister of the first game's protagonist, who has conveniently been locked away in her apartment for a year and not noticed that the world has gone to shit around her, you escape with the series running split-personality serial killer and attempt to take back control of the city.

Thanks to the shift in narrative focus from confined drama to city-sprawling mission, there's a lower frequency of plot twists than in previous entries. The twists and turns in the narrative are among the strongest in the series, but they feel padded further apart. The cast of characters introduced in Ultra Despair Girls are just as over the top, memorable, and well-written as any characters introduced to date in the series, which is one of the area??s the game continues to shine. General moment-to-moment dialogue and character interactions are superb and were the driving force that kept me invested through to the end.

The biggest problem: narrative pacing. The game felt like it was probably five or six hours too?? long.

It's worth noting that both the enemy designs and narrative in Ultra Despair Girls are some of the darkest, creepiest, most unsettling to date, and that says a lot for this particular series. From horrible mutated creatures to themes I would hesitate to subject adult characters to let alone children, the game gets pretty unnerving in places. That's not a complaint by any means -- Ultra Despair Girls pulls it off perfectly.

Ultimately, Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls just didn't click for me the same way previous games did. Sure the narrative still has some strong moments, but it's punctuated with third-person shooter gameplay that doesn't enhance my engagement with the narrative the same way the first two visual novels did. If you're a series fan, there's a good, text-heavy, hands-off narrative to be explored here, but the gameplay sections really dragged it down for me??.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Danganr??onpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls appeared first on Destructoid.

What's old is new again

Antiques possess a magnetic quality, an appeal to our imaginations, a ?false nostalgia for a time most of us are too young to remember. There's a comforting allure to these relics. They offer a window into the past, a living history. It's a connection, however tenuous, to where we came from, a place to which we've never visited or cannot return. 

Brandish: The Dark Revenant is an antique, something of a refurbished one. Falcom's classic role-playing game began its life as a PC release in 1991. It would later come to SNES, and was then remade in 2009 for PlayStatio?n Portable, albeit only for Japan. Now, more than a half-decade later, a localization has finally arrived on western shores. Better late than never.

Brandish: The Dark Revenant (PSP, PS Vita and PS TV compatible)
Developer: Nihon Falcom
Publisher: XSEED Games
MSRP: $19.99
Released: January 13, 2014

Despite having a history spanning decades, Brandish doesn't have much of a tale to tell. Th??e adventure centers on Ares Toraernos, a young warrior who f?inds himself lost in a labyrinthine spire deep within the subterranean kingdom of Vittoria. His only interests are survival and escape.

Brandish isn't without its charms, though. There's an endearing roadrunner and coyote dynamic between the protagonist and h??is nemesis Dela Delon, a vengeful sorceress who spends most of her time falling into pits. It's a game largely bereft of narrative, almost happily so. Falcom seems more than content to thr?ust old school dungeon crawling squarely into center stage. 

Traipsing through mazes in search of the next staircase is the primary focus. However, the journey to the surface isn't as simple as it sounds. As one might expect, the tower is teeming wi?th monsters, traps, and pitfalls. The treacherous setting is almost the principal character o?f this yarn.

Brandish is difficul?t, but unlike the original, it's not challenging for the wrong reasons. While nearly identical in most respects, massive improvements have been made to the cam??era controls.

Both versions share a top-down perspective. The hero is positioned in the center of the screen and can mov??e forward, backward, and side to side using the control pad. Turning to the right or left is handled with the shoulder buttons, which actually pivot the world around the character.

The design initially seems clumsy and odd, though it's never as bewildering as? it was back in the day. The original game rapidly transitioned from one perspective to the next in a jarring fas??hion, whereas the remake has a clear twisting animation. This is definitely the version you want to play.

Again, Brandish is all about surviving long enough to find your way to the next staircase, and there are a myriad of traps, foes, and puzzles along the way to prevent y?ou from achieving that goal.

The action-heavy combat actually reminds me a little of baseball. It has this rhythm, a comforting repetition that gives rise to the unexpected. Ares' shield automatically blocks most attacks, allowing you to focus on when and how to attack. It's a fa??irly simplistic setup, which is good because you'll frequently be combating more than one enemy at a time while avoiding environmental ha?zards.

Another con?cern you'll have in battle is weapon degradation. Most arms can only be used a set number of times. This means you'll probably want to keep that powerful sword in reserve in case you come across an imposing adversary, as opposed to needlessly annihilating a common grunt. Yes, there are bosses, but they're rare. These encounters serve to punctuate the journey and test your mettle more than anything.

While it can be quite tough, Brandish is rarely unforgiving. Falcom does an admirable job of showing you the ropes, gradually increasing the challenge and adding new elements as soon as you get handle on the old ones. The only major spike in difficulty occurs in the Dark Zone, which seems to have more pitfalls than walkable terrain, a li??mited field of view, and devastating enemies.

Even if you're constantly dying, Brandish isn't discouraging.  It has a save-anywhere feature and checkpoints at every floor. It also backs that up with an item called "??retry bread," allowing you to respawn at a particular location should you fall in battle.?? Taking advantage of these tools will help mitigate most of your frustrations, especially when things get a tad onerous later on.

As much as I enjoy Brandish, it probably isn't for everyone. Those looking for a sweeping story about legendary heroes are barking up the wrong tree. This game is about marching through trap-laden mazes and solving puzzles at a deliberate pace. Go in with ??the right mindset and you will discover a well-crafted role-playing game, one which has aged surprisingly well.

It may have taken forever to get here, but Brandish: The Dark Revenant was worth the wait.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by t?he publisher.]}

The post Review: Brandish: The Dark Revenant appeared first on Destructoid.

Brandish: The Dark Revenant coming early next month

A PSP game is coming out in 2015. What a wo??rl??d we live in!

Brandish: The Dark Revenant is targeting an early January launch on PlayStation Network across North America, XSEED Games announced today, promising a specific date and release information for other regio??ns at a later time.

While the classic role-playing game first came to North America in 1995 for SNES, Falcom skipped out on a western release for the 2009 PSP remake. That is, until now. Nearly five years after its Japanese debut, we will finally have an opportunity to get our hands on The Dark Revenant&n??bsp;and see all t??he improvements it makes over the original.

Oh, and you n?eedn't ??worry if you don't still have a PSP lying around. According to XSEED, the game should be fully compatible with both Vita and PlayStation TV.

Brandish: The ??Dark Revenant - Localization Blog #3 [XSEED Games]

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Hunting with a side of grappling hook

Ever since it came out in Japan earlier this year, Freedom Wars has been high on my list of anticipated releases. Being from the illustrious SCE Japan Studio, the game found success overseas as one of the Vita's answers to a lack of the market-leading Monster Hunter franchise, which jumped platfor???ms with the advent of the Nintendo 3DS.

As a hunting game, Freedom Wars certainly stays true to the heart of the genre, but differentiates itself ??enough to claim its own spot among the giants.

Freedom Wars (PlayStation TV, PlayStation Vita)
Developer: SCE Japan Studio / Shift / Dimps
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Release:  October 28, 2014
MSRP: $29.99

Freedom Wars ??takes place in a future uninhabitable Earth, in which groups of citizens take shelter in underground Panopticons. A Panopticon is a city-state that functions based on the contributions of its citizens. Naturally, this has lead to an intensely Orwellian society. Big Brother is always watching, except here he's an adorable teddy bear mascot that spreads propaganda and c??????????????????????????heers on the player to risk their life fighting giant monsters. Citizens are monitored through their Accessories, which are law-spewing robotic companions that never stop watching over them.

The player's character has been stricken with amnesia in battle, but, hear me out, Freedom Wars puts an honest twist on the trope. Everything in this universe is a crime; laying down while resting, allowing silence in conversation longer than five seconds, running too much, and a multitude of other offenses all hinder the advancement of the state. Biggest of all is losing one's memory. Physical resources are tight, but nothing is more precious in this wor??ld than knowledge. This leaves the player with a mi??llion-year long sentence for losing just that.

Outside of the core gameplay, managing this sentence is the most ??prominent mechanic of the game. Completing missions takes many years off, and any resources donated or held back from the state can subtract or add years (if the player is not yet entitled to said resource), respectively. All those ridiculous crimes mentioned earlier are absolutely real infractions the player can commit. They don't add too many years back on, but act as an effective remi??nder about the setting the player is in.

Want to run for more t??han five seconds without receiving an additional twenty year sentence? Buy the entitlement for it. Want new clothes? There are entitlemen??ts for that. The freedom motif is really driven home. To obtain these entitlements, the player simply has to save up entitlement points by being a productive member of the Panopticon. Completing missions and donating resources are the two main ways to accrue entitlement points. The more achieved, the more entitlements become available.

Freedom Wars is a hunting game through-and-through, so the main missions break down into a few different categories and ??that's really it. If variety is the spice of your life, you just won't find an abundance of it in a hunting game. The enemies that attack the player are called abductors, and, as their name implies, they abduct citizens as punishment for being sinners. Hunters are given the option of saving citizens from abductors, straight-up fighting abductors, or participating in firefights with enemy Panopticons.

The main weapon types are melee and guns. Melee breaks down into one-handed/two-handed swords and polearms; assault rifles, portable artillery, and autocannons make up the ranged weapons. The player can take any combination of the two of these into battle. Most hunting games emphasize personal style and preference, but the focus of strategy in Freedom Wars is knowing when to use these weapons. For example, melee is the most effective way to take down an abductor, ??but the same is definitely no??t true when facing opposing hunters.

Verticality is Freedom Wars' most appealing gameplay element, and it comes by way of the player's thorn -- a vine-like lasso that can be used for movement or attack. Trap, healing, and shield are the available thorn types that offer the benefits their names imply. More exciting, however, is that the thorn allows for zipping around the environment and grappling onto abductors themselves. Taking down giant monsters with a sword is cool, but latching onto them and severing limb by limb is even more satisfying. The thorn does a great service in improving the gameplay of Freedom Wars.

Characters met throughout the game's progression can be taken along on all missions, but the entirety of it is playable through local and online co-op. The companion AI does a decent enough job, but will only follow exactly where the player goes, and thus doesn't ever act on its own. Obviously, co-op is always more fun and is what the game advises, but with that said, the Freedom Wars can be played solo just fine. End-game missions just don't work with AI ?companions, however.

The plot structure can be completed somewhere in the neighborhood of fifteen to twenty-something hours, give or take depending on if the player participates in everything else there is to do. Hunting games are all about finally upgrading your favorite weapon, obtaining even better weapons, and finally getting that sweet new armor (in this case, outfit). Personal achievement is the name of the game, and Freedom Wars has no shortage of it.

Weapon crafting and upgrading is nothing new here -- gather basic resources and/or weapons, and this allows the player to use those to upgrade, modify, a??nd create new weapons. It's as addictive as it is in any other game. I found myself more engrossed in the aesthetic customization, as I'm a sucker for it. Every aspect of physical appearance can be changed? at any time. There are tons of clothing, accessories, and color palettes to unlock and choose from. These can be used on both the player's model and their Accessory. Fighting monsters for the good of the state is great, but looking good while you do it is even better.

Freedom Wars looks stunning. Character models ?are crisp and detailed, with their textures looking par??ticularly nice. The game handles motion like a champ, and seemingly never suffers from slowdowns while fighting the biggest baddies (particularly impressive considering the amount of maneuverability at play).

Even on the PlayStation TV, the game really holds its own on a large HD display (as well as feeling great played with a ??DualShock 4). Strangely, the main section of the hub world suffers from really bad character pop-in and framerate stuttering while that's happening. It's an odd problem considering how small that area is and how big the gameplay environments are.

Freedom Wars starts off painfully slow, but picks up after around the first few hours. The narrative progression is kind ??of strange during this time, and doesn't add much to the experience at all. It's quite an invest?ment to finally see payoff, but it is worth it to stick around. Loading times are fairly long, and there are a lot.. I could have done with less of them as there is just way too much time spent looking at loading screens as it is.

Freedom Wars has an intriguing setting, solid hunting action (with an always welcome grapple hook), insane amounts of customization, fully supported co-op, PVP, all through a beautiful presentation. There are numerous hours of content to keep you coming ba?ck again and again. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but, by that same token, there's nothing else quite like it.

It's the PS Vita's biggest release this year, and likely will be for some time. If you own a PlayStation Vita or TV, you'd be crazy to pass up Freedom Wars.

The post Review: Freedom Wars appeared first on Destructoid.

Then Europe in November

PlayStation TV launches across North America starting Oct?ober 14, Sony announ??ced today.

The new set-top box plays a selection of Vita games, PSP titles, PS One Classics, PS3 games via?? PlayStation Now, and can stream PS4 content via Remote Play.

PS TV will be available standalone for $100 or as part of a $140 bundle, including an 8GB memory card, The LEGO Movie Videogame a?nd a DualShock 3 controller. It comes with 1GB of built-in storage out?? of the box, meaning that while a pricey memory card isn't necessarily required, folks won't be able to get too far without one.

The device will launch in Europe one month later, crossing the pond on November 14. There, the device will retail for £85/€100 and include a voucher for three digital Vita games: Worms Revolution Extreme, Velocity Ultra and OlliOlli.

While the PS TV will support nearly 700 titles available at launch, it doesn't play everything. You can check out the full list of compatible Vita games right here.

PlayStation TV: Release date, price and fu??ll list of com??patible games [PS Blog EU, PS Blog]

The post PlayStatio??n TV launches in North America next ?month appeared first on Destructoid.

$89.99 really is a steal

Ah, it's a beautiful, brand-new week fresh off the craziness of E3. We've had time to let all the sweet announcements settle in, one of which being that the PlayStation TV is finally making its way to the West. No, not that PlayStation TV. You know, what used to be called the PlayStation Vita TV? Th??at one. You guys remember the Vita brand, right?

Anyway, Amazon wants to also remind you it's coming, and they want to give you a deal because they're great like that. Earlier this morning they sent me an email with a nice $10 off coupon for a pre-order of either the standalone PS TV or the PS TV Bundle. I'm not sure if it's entirely linked to having purchased a P??S4 off of Amazon, but it looks like that ma??y be the case.

The amazing do-it-all PlayStation box was a great d??eal at $99, but $89 is honestly ev??en more of a steal. I know I'm not passing that one up.

The post Amazon sending out $10 off coupons for PlayStation TV ?pre-orders appeared first on Destructoid.

Get to know the people that make great videogames

A week and a half ago on Sup Holmes (now on iTunes) we spent an hour and a half getting to know Shawn Alexander Allen of A Nu Challenger. We covered a vast sea of topics, like growing up with a Repo Mom, his path towards working for one of the biggest developers in the world, how he created some of your favorite Rockstar Games trailers, the modded Xbox that lead to a headbutt at GameStop, the Wu Tang Clan Vs. the term "Black Nerd," the reasons for Capcom's continued fall from grace, Tropes Vs. Black Guys in Videogames, and of course, his upcoming game Treachery in Beatdown City.

For those who don't know, Treachery looks to take autobiographical content, inject it with a personal language of parody and social commentary, fuel it with classic RPG and beat-'em- up game design, and wrap it all around a love/hate relationship with New York City. If Earthbound and GTA had a baby, it wouldn't look much like either of its parents, but it might look a lot like Treachery in Beatdown City. 

Thanks again to Shawn for coming on the show, and be sure to tune in this Sunday at 1pm PST/4pm EST when we welcome Holly Pickering (Traveler's Tales, White Paper Games) back to the program. 

The post S??hawn Allen talks Rockstar, headbutts, and Treachery appeared first on Destructoid.

'Something I was so sure people wouldn't like at all'

It seems like only yesterday that I was engaging in a humble email interview series with Edmund McMillen about his new project. It was about a baby in a basement. Two years later and millions have purchased the game. Even more have enjoyed it through live streams and Lets Plays. Edmund let me use an image of Isaac in an episode of Teenage Pokemon, and I was shocked to see how many of the comments on YouTube screamed "Pewdiepie poster!" For reasons beyond our full understanding, Isaac has r?esonated with people on a?? level that his creators never could have imagined. 

The game just turned two, and to celebrate, Edmund and Florian have put it on sale for 80% off on Steam. On top of that, award-winning documentary film makers James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot have released thirty minutes of Isaac-focused content from Indie Game: The Movie Special Edition on YouTube.

With the game headed to PS4, PS Vita, and Steam in an all-new Rebirth edition early next year, the story of Isaac appears far from over. 

The post Isaac sells over 2 mil, gets min?i-documentary and sale appeared first on Destructoid.

Hands-on at TGS

Seeing the little white Sony box that came ??out of nowhere last week was? a top priority for us a Tokyo Game Show this week. I put the PS Vita TV through its paces today at t??he show, trying everything from PSP to streaming PS4 play out on it.

It does so ma??ny things, but does i?t do them all well?

The PS Vita TV is small -- about the size of a thick mobile ?phone. Tiny enough to fit in a pocket and compact enough to fit in even the smallest home. But?? when connected to a network and a television it does some pretty big things for the PlayStation videogame catalog. 

Working my way up through its gameplay modes, I started with PSP play. I'm quite excited by the idea of backwards compatibility for play on televisions, but the look of titles like Patapon and Gran Turismo on a large HDTV sh??ows just how far we've come since their initial release. Up against some of the other format options the PS Vita TV provides, PSP titles look blocky and blurry. These are games running at a lower resolution, but they don't all have the retro charm that PSOne games do. Despite my love for the PSP and its library, seeing these and other PSP and PSOne titles in action next to Vita games was a bit of a bummer. 

They did play beautifully, though. The Dual Shock did the trick. It also did the trick for menu navigation. The Vita TV's UI looks a lot like that of the Vi??ta, down to the page flipping to move between open apps. 

PS Vita games look fantastic on the PS Vita TV. Those that have been daydreaming of a way to be able to play Vita games on their TV will be pleased. Soul Sacrifice Delta looked yummy, as did Danganronpa 1-2 Reload. And wow: God Eater 2 was eye-po??ppingly beautiful on Sony's HDTVs. I feel TV play of vita games alone is worth the price of entry??. I can't wait to see how my Vita collection looks and plays on the big screen.

Finally, I gave the streaming PS4 remote play functionality a try. Sony had upcoming game Knack running on a PS4, and showed that a simple option selection on the PS Vita TV had the game streaming almost instantly. Knack played perfectly via remote play using a Dual Shock controller, just as it did when I played it on PS4 at E3. 

But the image quality takes a hit. With streaming play, gone is that high end gloss the PS4's graphical muscle provides. The meat and potatoes of the images are still there, but you can see compression easily, and colors and deta??ils suffer. The resolution was certainly lower than the original. It certainly doesn't look bad. Remote play of PS4 games looks just like watching a nice HD stream ??of gameplay on the internet. 

But quality of signal is not the point here. Flexibility is. Having second-room access to your $400 P?S4 for only $100 more is pretty attractive. Plugging in a tiny box will be much easier than disconnecting and reconnecting your PS4?? in another room. There's also plenty of opportunities to be explored with remote play and multiplayer. And who knows what Sony has up their sleeves with Gaikai streaming tech beyond remote play. 

Sony has yet to confirm the PS Vita TV for western markets. The device is sure to do well in Japan and Asia on the gaming side of things, but I hope they realize that with the addition of video and other content services, westerners would be happy to pl??unk down $99 for one.

The post Giving the PS Vita TV the full rundown appeared first on Destructoid.

Knack shown played live on PS Vita TV

At this morning's Sony TGS press conference, boss Shuhei Yoshida played PS4 launch game Knack?? with a DualShock 4 controller, but then paused the game to ??take over using the PS Vita TV system.

With a DualShock 3 controller he navigated around the PS Vita TV's UI, showing how items can be moved ??and started. It looks a lot like the Vita UI. N??ote that the DualShock 4 controller can also be used with PS Vita TV.

Starting a remote play application had the Vita TV connecting to the PS4 quickly, bringing up Knack on the screen. Perfect! It was very quick to connect, thoug??h he admits that being outside your home network would take a bit longer. 

This?? remote play system is still in development, Sony says. They're aiming to have it ready for launch. 

The post PS Vita TV to PS4 remote play demonstrated at TGS appeared first on Destructoid.

From the hidden PAX stacks

In a hidden red room just outside of the main PAX show floor, many wonderous new videogames could be found. Nicalis was showing Aban Hawkins and the 1,001 Spikes, VVVVVV, and Legend of Raven (formerly known as Yatagarasu) on Sony consoles. 

Having played the game on the Vita, I can see why Nicalis decided to move the game over to Sony's handheld, though that didn't stop me from asking Nicalis's Tyrone Rodreguez exactly why the game changed platformed. There's also some talk of what it's like to work with Sony and Nintendo (fun), the semi-sequel to Yatagarasu? that's in the works (Nicalis would love to help port it down the line), and a te?ase of who may be providing in-game color commentary in the English language version of the game (Smeth). 

You also get to hear me sound stupid while I try to? talk to a man and play a fighting game for the first time, so that's cool.

The post Nicalis on Raven’s jump to Vita, new color man and more appeared first on Destructoid.

Wants to take on Chromecast and Apple TV

As much as I want a PlayStation Vita for the current crop of indie games that have taken over the system, the appeal of the PS Vita TV is not lost on me. It's a micro-console t??hat will let you play some, but not all, of the Vita library with a DualS?hock 3 and it supports services like Hulu. That's to say nothing of the remote play potential with PS4 and cloud streaming of PS3/PS4 games. I've been meaning to get another Roku for a while. Not anymore.

According to Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Andrew House, the original concept for the Vita TV dates all the way back to August 2011, and it won't necessarily be targeted at folks like us. (Though a fair few of us are alread?y sold on the concept as it stands, I'm willing to bet.) Sony considers devices like Google's Chromecas?t and Apple TV to be direct rivals.

While Japan is getting the Vita TV first -- the video streaming market is less crowded there, says House -- I can't fathom Sony not bringing this thing to the West. "[W]e are just saying "PS Vita TV [is] releasing first in Japan," tweeted Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida. He even threw in a smiley face, so you know we're in the clear here.

[Interview] SCE President Speaks of PS Vita TV [Tech-On!]

The post Sony is targeting families with the PS Vita TV appeared first on Destructoid.

The Destructoid Show reads the news to you.

Here's today's Destructoid Show -- sort ?of an odd one, since it's the last time we'll be reading the news to you. Of course, we'll have a big huge send-off episode on Friday, but this is the last we'll be doing a standard news show. Thankfully, we actually have some news to discuss.

For starters, Sony announced some cute little PS Vita slims, as well as PS Vita TV, which seems like an odd device. The guys who made Far Cry 3 have decided to make something that's the opposite of Far Cry 3, which apparently is a whimsical JRPG called Child of Light. The new Call of Duty: Ghosts trailer has a dog biting a guy in a helicopter, so I shout about it a bunch. Not to be out-dogged by Activision, Ubisoft also has a war game with a dog in it, called Valiant Hearts: The Great War, but it's all artsy and emotional.

The post Unl??eash the Dogs of War! And Some New PS V??itas, too! appeared first on Destructoid.

Tiny new system, big potential

New Sony produ?ct PS Vita TV lets you play Vita games on your television.

Andrew House took the stage at a pre-TGS press conference this morning in Japan to show off this new pocket-sized system. This 6cm x 10cm device will allow your TV to access Hulu and other l??ike services, watch PS Store videos/movies, tweet, email, and much more.

And as the name suggests, the PS Vita TV will let you play Vita games on your television, as well as downloadable PSP and PSOne games. There's even multiplayer support for Vita games. Just keep in mind that Vita games that need touchscreen a??ction won't work with this system.

Amazingly, it's also a companion device for the PS4. Via r??emote play it will allow you to play PS4 games from another room, for example. 

In Japan it will be released for 9,480 yen (about $95) this November 15. A?? bundle with an 8GB memory card and Dual Shock 3 controller will also be released, priced at about ?$150.

The PS Vita TV is tiny -- just big enough for its LAN, USB, and HDMI ports (yes, it comes wit??h a HDMI cable) on the back edge. And aside from a card slot, that's about it. On the wireless side, expect WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. Video resolution tops out at 1080i, with 720p and 480p being options.

Do you want one?

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